Drones
by Hearshot Kid
Summary: Steven accidentally learns that there is more to Pearl than she ever let on. A story exploring some theories surrounding Pearl. Features a significantly older Steven, perhaps in his late teens.


"Anyone home?" Steven called from outside of the house after returning from a stroll down the boardwalk, and spotted a familiar face at the kitchen sink from where he was standing. "Pearl, what's up?" He strolled into the open doorway, the breeze from outside following him into his home. The weather was mild, the sun was bright, and the ocean was calm, but the mood in his house did not seem to reflect that at all.

"Hello, Steven," Pearl said as if only by obligation, her eyes not moving from the dish she was washing. Steven knew something was bothering her, and sat in the kitchen to talk with her.

He let both his curiosity and his concern get the best of him, "You seem kinda down, something up?"

" _Someone's_ been pushing my buttons nonstop since morning," Pearl shot a glare towards the couch. Steven turned around to follow it, only to find Amethyst there.

"Only because _someone's_ been nagging me all day!" Amethyst fired back, crumbs from her lunch falling from her shirt onto the couch as she moved.

"Okay, sorry I asked," Steven tried to change the subject. Pearl and Amethyst had clashed ever since he was a child, but for some reason, he couldn't shake the feeling that they were at each other's throats more often than ever. Perhaps it was because he was getting old enough to notice it more, but it still bothered him. Regardless, he was looking for some kind of distraction to direct their attention away from whatever it was they were fighting about.

And one came right on cue, "Hey, Garnet!" Steven pointed towards the warp pad, nudging Pearl in an effort to distract her. Garnet had been gone on a solo mission since sunrise, and the glow coming from the warp pad was a surefire sign that the mission was a success.

When the glow faded, Garnet appeared on the warp pad, wiping the sweat from her brow. She turned toward the kitchen, where Steven and Pearl were sitting, but as she took a breath to speak, she was interrupted.

"How'd it go? Did you get the amulet? Can I see it?" Amethyst's curiosity was piqued. Garnet knew to expect this, as her fascination with otherworldly items had been evident ever since she joined the team, but she had other things on her mind.

"I'm afraid you can't," Garnet replied, "The amulet is about sixty feet up, ninety degrees, no footholds. I managed to track down its location easily. However, I'm going to need some help to reach it," Garnet turned to Pearl, and they locked eyes.

Pearl's blushed hard, "Me? What are you looking at me for?" She was flustered, partially because this was supposed to be a solo mission, but also because she knew precisely what Garnet was going to say, and she did not want to hear it.

"We need Morganite."

" _What?_ " Amethyst turned around in shock. None of the Gems had heard the name Morganite in years.

Steven turned to Pearl, "Morganite? Is that your fusion?"

Garnet nodded, "Yes. Morganite and her grappling hook are my only hope of reaching that amulet before the sun hits it. And you know what will happen then."

"Garnet..." Pearl tried hard not to lock eyes with her again, "Are you sure we should be jumping to such conclusions? It's... been a while," her face turned an even deeper blue as she looked down at the dish she was still holding.

"You'll be fine."

"Why're you so afraid to fuse with Garnet?" Steven asked.

"She's no good at it!" Amethyst blurted before Pearl could take a breath to respond.

"Amethyst!"

"But you've fused with Amethyst. Like, three times," Steven thought aloud. Perhaps Pearl was just bad at fusing with Garnet? But that wouldn't make sense. She clashed far more with Amethyst than with Garnet, and they still managed to make a fusion work.

Pearl responded with a sigh, "Yes, but I can't sustain it for very long. It's very difficult for me."

Amethyst continued, "Yeah, Pearl's pretty bad with changing shape. Ever wonder why she hasn't fused since you were like, ten? Or why she won't shape shift? Or why it takes her, like, two weeks to regenerate?"

"Thank you, Amethyst. We understand," Garnet interjected in an attempt to diffuse the situation.

Steven turned to an obviously uncomfortable Pearl, "I didn't know that, Pearl."

She couldn't even look Steven in the eye, "That's because I don't like to talk about it," she felt her frustration boiling as she stormed toward Amethyst, slamming her hands on the kitchen table, "But _someone_ couldn't keep her mouth shut, could she? Can't you go a second without picking on me?"

"No, I'd die!" Amethyst matched Pearl's frustration.

Steven could no longer bear to see his loved ones fighting like they were, "Alright, I don't know what happened to start all this, but Amethyst, maybe making fun of Pearl is taking it too far-"

Amethyst reached her boiling point, "Me? You mean this is _my_ fault? Pearl never gets blamed for anything! Pearl's not perfect, you know! She's not nearly as perfect as you think she is!"

"Amethyst, stop," Pearl spoke with a trembling voice, and her hands shortly followed. She knew what was coming, and she felt a knot in her stomach. She wasn't ready for this to resurface.

"What are you saying?" Steven felt tears forming in his eyes at the sight of Pearl's reaction. He didn't know what Amethyst was going to say, but Pearl was obviously hiding it from him, and he shuddered at the realization that the Gems had kept a lot of secrets from him over the years. It could be anything.

"Hey Pearl, why don't you tell Steven where you came fro-?"

" _Shut up!_ Just shut up, all of you!" Pearl shouted, slamming the dish into the sink and shattering it. It was all she could think to do to make everything stop. She suddenly felt everyone's eyes burning into her skin, though she could only see their blurred outlines through the tears forming in her eyes. She blinked hard and let them roll down her face, "I'm sorry..." Her voice cracked with the rest of the tears that she was hiding, and she hastily made her way to her room, avoiding eye contact with anyone. Nobody said a word.

But Steven couldn't bear it anymore, "Pearl, wait," he tried to catch her attention as he rushed to catch up to her, but he was stopped by what felt like a punch in the gut. He realized the obstacle that had kept him from comforting his friend was Garnet's gauntlet. He tried to resist her, but she was too strong for him.

"Steven, trust me. Let her calm down," she told him.

"But I need to talk to her," Steven pleaded with her. He hadn't seen Pearl so upset in years. He couldn't let her be alone with all of that humiliation.

Garnet looked toward Pearl, who was halfway in her room at this point. She turned back to Steven, "I can't say no to you," she sighed as she let go of her grip on him. He didn't have time to thank her as he made up for lost time, sprinting towards the door and slipping through just before it closed.

Steven tried to stay as quiet as possible as he gasped for breath, remembering for a second how out of shape he still was. The last thing he wanted to do was make Pearl feel as if he was bombarding her. He figured she had had enough of that already.

Pearl sat at the edge of the platform that the two of them were standing on, facing away from Steven, and buried her face in her hands. Steven heard her heavy breathing all the way from the entrance where he was standing, and grabbed at his chest when he realized she was trying desperately not to break down.

He couldn't watch her anymore. He started to walk towards her, making sure she could hear him coming so as not to startle her. As he'd expected, she turned around well before he'd reached her, but turned away as soon as it hit her that she was not alone.

"Hey, Pearl," Steven sat down next to her, "I didn't mean to sneak up on you or anything. I just felt like you needed someone."

Pearl shrugged in response, staring at her feet dangling off the platform, moving in and out of the water that spilled over as she swung them back and forth. "I never wanted you to know where I really came from," she said, her eyes still fixated on her feet.

"Well... I still don't," Steven responded.

"But now I have to tell you," the frustration was starting to build again in Pearl's voice. She stopped herself, took a shaky breath, and continued to speak more calmly, "Although... I think you might be old enough to understand. Sort of."

"If you're really not comfortable, you don't have to tell me," Steven assured her.

"No, no, I... I want you to know," Pearl finally made eye contact with Steven. They exchanged small smiles before Pearl broke away, staring at her feet as her cheeks turned blue. She took a deep breath before starting, "You see, I... I wasn't really born in the same way Rose, Ruby, and Sapphire were. Not even Amethyst."

"Then how were you born?"

"I was manufactured. I was created like a machine on an assembly line, with hundreds of other Pearls, and my sole purpose was to be a service drone to the Diamond Authority and its associates as they prepared for war against the rebels, which were led by Rose, Ruby, and Sapphire."

"Oh, wow... but... how did you end up on my mom's side?"

"Because there was something wrong with me. I was designed to be perfect. But I had many flaws. And one of the glaring flaws was my obvious struggle with changing shape. So they sent me to Rose, their opponent, pretending I was a gift to her, but instead it was because they were mocking her, and wanted to get rid of me."

Steven knew that Pearl was insecure, that she was nothing short of a perfectionist, but he could not have imagined it running so deep. He had so many questions for her. She seemed nothing like a drone or a machine. And she'd become so skilled at changing her shape when necessary, that he did not even consider that it might have been difficult for her. She didn't seem to have anything to be so insecure about anymore. But Steven decided not to push the subject any further, as it obviously made her uncomfortable.

For a time after, the two of them sat together without saying a word, the flow of water the only sound that could be heard. This calmed Steven down, but it appeared to be having the opposite effect on Pearl, whose breaths were beginning to stagger again, Steven noticed. He placed a hand on hers, and that was Pearl's breaking point. She abandoned all efforts to hold back her emotions, and Steven wrapped an arm around her, holding her up as she collapsed into tears.

"Hey, listen," Steven tried to get through to her, "I'm not, like, mad or anything. I hope you know that."

"B-But," Pearl tried to speak through the tears, "You think of me differently. You think less of me. You must."

"No, no, not at all," he lifted her chin up with his finger, so that they were once again looking at each other, "Pearl, listen to me. I wouldn't ever think less of anyone because of how they were born, I can promise you that right now. But I'm pretty sure there's nothing you, especially you, could ever say that could ever make me think of you as anything other than amazing. Because you are. And I don't think I say that enough."

Pearl stared at him for a few moments. He'd truly grown up into a wonderful young man. She had not encountered someone so full of kindness and love since the loss of his mother. Rose was the first in her life to treat her as something more than a broken machine, to make her feel truly valued. Steven, at that moment, felt like the only person who came close to making her feel that important again. She almost felt as if she'd never lost Rose to start with.

Pearl smiled slightly, tears still rolling down her face. She wanted to thank him, she wanted to thank him a thousand times for understanding, but she couldn't bring herself to speak without breaking down again. Without warning, Pearl pulled Steven into a tight embrace, and Steven understood.

He just wished he could make Pearl see herself the way that he saw her.


End file.
